Kaleidoscopic view of the most famous and fought-after city in the
world. At every turn, journalist Elon (Herzl; The Israelis, etc.)
emphasizes Jerusalem's conflicts and contradictions. This "Capital
of Memory" is coveted by three major faiths; its inhabitants
celebrate three sabbaths, speak 13 languages, use seven alphabets.
"Too much holy zeal has been poured out here, for too long, into
too narrow a space," he says about the Temple Mount - a judgment
that also fits the city as a whole. Often Elon seems to be trying
to mimic in his prose the dust, clash, color, heat of this holy
place, as he piles up layer upon swirling layer of history,
sociology, architecture, literature (and what other city could have
repelled Melville and Koestler and Chateaubriand?), exhausting
readers but also convincing them of Jerusalem's metaphysical punch.
Splendid accounts of life in Hasidic Mea Sherim and in the Armenian
quarter, and of the foolishness and devotion churning around the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock, cap a tour
de force that successfully re-imagines a town of limestone and
chalk as a magical metropolis of shifting, deceiving, light-kissed
mirrors. Enchanting and terrifying: an exact reflection of the city
it describes. Among the endless number of books on Jerusalem, this
stands out as one of the best. (Kirkus Reviews)
A portrait of Jerusalem which gives an insight into the
kaleidoscopic culture of this magical city. Battle-scarred from
4000 years of violent conflict, the holy city is a sacred symbol of
Judaism, Islam and Christianity and its religious wars of today
reflect those of the past.
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